Grupo Rotoplas S A B

Good morning, and welcome to Grupo Rotoplus' results conference call. Please note that today's call is being recorded, and all participants are currently in listen-only mode to prevent background noise. The host will open the floor for questions later. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we currently see it, and as such there may be certain risk and uncertainty associated with such statements. Please refer to our press release for more information on the specific risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise. Please allow me to remind you that the company issued its earnings press release yesterday after market close. It can be found in the Investors section of its website. Also, the presentation for the call and the webcast link are in the Investors section. Today's call will be hosted by Mr. Carlos Rojas Abumrad, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Mario Romero, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to the speakers.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being with us today to discuss our strategy and the results across our operations. Before we review this quarter's results, I would like to hand the call over to Alta Nova, our AI voice and spokesperson on water issues, who will provide an update on the current water situation. Alta Nova, the floor is yours.

Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here again. Rotoplus is deeply connected to the environment, especially to the resource that defines the existence on this planet. As we analyze current trends, it's evident that the global water crisis continues. with data revealing a path towards critical shortages and scarcity. The recent heat waves and persistent drought conditions in Mexico have exacerbated the already critical water scarcity. The combination of high temperatures and inadequate rainfall has severely impacted water availability across the country. Currently, 73% of the rainfall evaporates, 21% runs off, and only 6% infiltrates the groundwater. In Mexico, Rotoplaza's operations are crucial, particularly as the country faces acute water scarcity, especially in the northern and central regions. Overexploitation of aquifers and inadequate management practices are key factors affecting both urban and rural communities. As of July 15, the average storage level of the Kutzamala system was 29.1%. a slight increase from previous weeks, but still critically low compared to its historical average of 59.9%. The drought has profoundly impacted agriculture, with 68% of the water in Mexico dedicated to this sector. The reduction in water availability threatens food security and the livelihoods of many communities. For instance, the severe drought conditions have already reduced crop yields by an estimated 30%, affecting farmers' income and increasing food prices. Additionally, only 17% of the Mexican population has constant access to water. This highlights inefficiencies in water distribution and the urgent need for better infrastructure. The commitment at Rotoplas is to address these challenges through comprehensive water management. The fight against water scarcity is an urgency humans shouldn't overlook. We are already witnessing the effects of this phenomenon on our operations and communities, as at least 69% of the impact of climate change is expressed through the water cycle. And as we have already shared with you, it is estimated that for every degree Celsius increase in global climate, there is a 20% decrease in the availability of renewable water and change in rainfall patterns. For example, in the U.S., as shown in the slide, rainfall has alleviated drought conditions with improvements observed in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In Peru, as climate change exacerbates temperature variations, and increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. People have experienced unusual cold spells this winter. We have to create resilient water solutions that can withstand the pressures of climate change and population growth. Thank you for your attention. We look forward to continuing our work together to tackle these challenges and ensure a secure water future for all. Over to you, Charlie.

Thank you, Altanova. Now, after insightful data, let's dive into our quarterly performance. This quarter, we have demonstrated our resilience and adaptability amidst a challenging landscape. We have faced unique challenges in each country or region, ranging from climatic issues and increased demand to economic recessions. In Mexico and in Central America, demand for our solutions remains robust, especially during times of water scarcity. Our services platform also performed exceptionally well, with Bavia gaining traction and RSA and Riego continuing to grow. We're investing in improving our processes to meet demand efficiently, developing robust field services and digital capabilities. This positions us to capture the value our services offer and validates our business strength in water stress situations. Our participation in the hot sale campaign in May with Blue offers provided additional momentum, boosting sales, and reinforcing our commitment to reliable water solutions. To meet demand and support growth in this region, we're focusing on completing the modernization plan for manufacturing technology and storage plants, improving logistics, and building the plant in Iztapaluca to increase production capacity. In Peru, the climate event that caused severe cold during the winter significantly increased the sales of water heaters. Additionally, we face economic and political instability affecting demand for storage and piping solutions. Our plan is to maintain an efficient fixed cost and expense structure to adjust operations to the size of demand without affecting profitability. In Brazil, we continue to see positive trends and growth opportunities in developing wastewater treatment plants. We aim to continue business development and secure new contracts by improving our commercial strategy and and expanding value offerings, such as consultancy and digital data services. Moving on to Argentina, the severe economic recession and prolonged devaluation unprecedented in the last 20 years have significantly impacted sales and profitability. Our team remains focused on dealing with strong macroeconomic and political challenges. While it is difficult to provide an accurate forecast, we remain hopeful that Argentina is on a path towards a more favorable economic environment. The inflation rate is decelerating, and the country has achieved a fiscal surplus, which are positive indicators for potential economic development. Our plan includes keeping our team focused on navigating this volatility, remaining alert to potential improvement in top-line growth and profitability, and closely monitoring developments to adjust our strategies, mitigating risks, and capitalizing on opportunities. In the United States, improvement in the drought situation has impacted demand. However, we continue to focus on returning to profitability. We have identified opportunities to grow our water business and achieve higher margins through a turnaround plan. Our mission is more important than ever. We must create resilient water solutions that can withstand the pressure of climate change and population growth. Before moving on to the second section of the presentation with Mario, I would like to highlight some key ESG milestones. Sustainability is central to our operations, and we have made notable progress in this area during the quarter. In Mexico, we have initiated the supply of 100% renewable electricity for our Leon manufacturing plant, which is one of our biggest manufacturing facilities. This is a major step towards a more efficient operation, reducing our carbon footprint and supporting our commitment to sustainable practices. We have also completed the first phase of development of our online environmental indicators platform. leveraging our strategic agreement with Google Cloud to incorporate artificial intelligence solutions into our functional areas, businesses, and internal processes. This platform will enhance our ability to track and improve our levels of efficiency and environmental performance across operations. Additionally, we launched the 2024 edition of a fluid initiative in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, This program aims to benefit municipalities with high levels of social deprivation and water stress by donating Rotoplast products. We also implemented the Rotogotas de Ayuda campaign in response to the drought in Mexico, encouraging customers and the community to participate in activities that earn points, which Rotoplast then uses to donate water tanks to the most affected states. Looking ahead, we are committed to maintaining our market leadership by continuously improving our product offerings and expanding our service platforms. Our investment in modernizing manufacturing processes and developing digital capabilities are crucial to meet the growing demand for our solutions and improving our customer experience. We also recognize the importance of being agile and responsive to market changes. Thank you for your attention and I look forward to your questions. Now I will hand it over to Manuel.

Thank you, Charlie, and good morning to everyone joining us this morning. AI Mario will assist me with presenting some of the financial results. Please go ahead.

To begin, I would like to mention that our consolidated results were significantly impacted by Argentina. However, it is important to highlight the strong performance in other regions such as Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Brazil. Excluding Argentina, our growth reached 14% for the quarter and 10% for the semester. Additionally, the EBITDA margin would be 19.7% year-to-date. Regarding our financial highlights, I'd like to focus on our margins as I will discuss our top-line performance by country and business unit later on. Starting with the gross margin, our pricing strategy and increased sales of Tenaco Plus significantly boosted the margin. In the quarter, it reached 47%, an improvement of 140 basis points. For the semester, it was 49% of 210 basis points. This improvement is also due to lower raw material costs during the first quarter and manufacturing efficiencies in Mexico. However, the growth in expenses coupled with lower sales has impacted our operating margins. The main factors include a drop in sales in Argentina, increased logistical costs to meet high demand in Mexico and Central America, and expenses related to the development of digital capabilities. As a result, operating income for the second quarter is 29% down year over year, reaching a margin of 10%. Cumulatively, operating income decreased by 16%, representing a margin of 13%. Consequently, the EBITDA margin decreased to 15.1% for the quarter and 17.8% year to date. Finally, our net income saw a substantial increase, reaching 364 million pesos, a 29-fold rise compared to 2023. Last year, we were impacted by nearly 500 million pesos due to the valuation effects of currency exchange hedges. This year, we adjusted our accounting practices for hedges to record these effects directly in the cost of goods sold, aligning more closely with operational realities. For better comparability, we have included a table to analyze the impact of the FX hedging on the gross margin. As shown, from January to June 2024, the margin was affected by 50 basis points. Last year, the impact would have been 870 basis points. Moving on to regional performance, net sales in Mexico surged by 19% in the quarter and 16% for the semester, driven by robust growth in both the product and service sectors. The product segment, especially storage solutions like water tanks and cisterns, as Charlie mentioned, saw record sales, bolstered by water supply disruptions, mainly in the central region of the country, as well as by the hot sale campaign in May. which we called Ofertas Azules. The services platform also grew rapidly with significant growth in BEBIA, RSA, and Riego. EBITDA margins contracted primarily due to increased operating expenses. In Argentina, net sales decreased by 37% in Mexican pesos for the quarter, but grew by 145% in local currency due to currency devaluation and inflation. Cumulatively, net sales decreased by 34% in Mexican pesos and grew by 176% in Argentine pesos. This impact is due to the economic recession that has affected sales volumes and pricing. Lower sales and dollarized expenses negatively impacted margins. In the U.S., net sales decreased by 11% in Q2 and by 15% cumulatively, primarily due to an easing of the drought situation and heightened competition. The septic tank business refocused to optimize services by geography, currently providing full service only in Texas. Cost containment strategies helped reduce negative EBITDA during the quarter and for the semester. While the EBITDA margin remains negative, it is progressively improving towards breakeven. Other countries saw net sales grow by 15% in Q2 and by 3% for the semester, driven by strong performance in Central America and the recovery in Peru during the second quarter. Despite a challenging environment in Peru, sales increased due to higher demand for water heaters during a severe winter. Central America saw growth across all categories with record storage sales volumes. In Brazil, water treatment and recycling plant projects continue to progress. with significant contract closures. The EBITD margins decreased due to increased logistics expenses in Central America and construction costs in Brazil. Regarding the performance of our product and service revenues, services now represent 8% of our total sales. Within the services segment, we have seen remarkable progress. Bebia has significantly expanded its reach, now serving over 120,000 users. reflecting our successful penetration and growth in the consumer water solutions market. Riego, taking into account the recent acquisitions, has successfully installed innovative irrigation solutions across more than 55,000 hectares, showcasing our commitment to enhancing agricultural efficiency. RSA has increased its scale and reach, while Aquantia Brazil shows promising growth prospects due to ongoing processes with a high likelihood of closing. Furthermore, our strategic acquisitions have strengthened our market presence, allowing us to create synergies that drive our growth. Additionally, our services sector is experiencing improved EBITDA as it scales up and benefits from additive M&A transactions. Back to you, Mario.

Thank you. Our financial stability is supported by a robust balance sheet with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.8 times. below our policy target of two times. The cash position includes significant disbursements during the semester, such as $545 million in working capital, $287 million in financial expenses, $243 million in dividend payments, and $236 million in capital expenditures, as well as $117 million in the programmatic M&A program. Our total debt stands at 4.3 billion Mexican pesos, structured between short-term and long-term liabilities to optimize financial flexibility. Short-term debt amounts to 322 million pesos, primarily used for working capital to efficiently manage day-to-day operations. Long-term debt totals 4 billion Mexican pesos, composed of a fixed-rate sustainable bond. The blended cost of debt is 9.05%. Additionally, we maintain a tight focus on working capital management. Our interest coverage ratio remains healthy, consistently above eight times, reflecting our strong ability to meet interest obligations. During the semester, our capital investments represented 4% of sales, reflecting a significant increase of 24% compared to the same period last year. Notably, 95% of these investments were allocated in Mexico. We continue to roll out the SMART program to the remaining plants to achieve more efficient and sustainable production of water storage solutions like the Atinaco Plus. Additionally, we are investing in the construction of the new plant in Ixtapaluca, which is in Mexico City. Furthermore, we allocated 53 million pesos to BEVIA and 22 million pesos to water treatment plants. Our return on invested capital reached 12.7% due to the weak results in Argentina, as well as a higher effective tax rate in Mexico and Central America. However, it is important to note that this figure is still more than 100 basis points above our cost of capital. Finally, We will update our guidance due to the active economic recession in Argentina. Our current expectations are growth between 0% and 5%, an EBITDA margin between 17% and 18%, leverage to remain below two times net debt to EBITDA, and estimated ROIC equal or above the cost of capital. I want to emphasize that these estimates will remain valid as long as the situation in Argentina does not deteriorate further and macroeconomic variables in other regions remain stable. We appreciate your time and interest. In closing, I want to reiterate our commitment to leveraging our talent and resources to achieve growth and profitability while enhancing the quality of life for many people across the continent. We can now begin the Q&A session, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mario. So you can submit your questions by pressing the Q&A button. Please also include your name and the name of the company you work for. And let's start. We have the first question coming from Carlos Alcaraz, Appalachia Research. He has a couple of questions. I'm going to read the first one, and it's about the Mexican market. What do you consider to be the main driver of revenue growth for the rest of 2024, higher sales volume or higher prices?

Thank you very much for your question, Carlos, and good morning. So for the remainder of 2024, we expect that it's going to be driven more by volume than by prices. And additional to volume of existing products, also volume of new products, which continue to perform positively. As you remember, we had a significant increase in new products since we started with a flow program, and these new products have been performing positively and so contributing to growth in the products business in Mexico and Central America.

Thank you.

So moving on to – I think we're missing a second question from Carlos, right? Yeah.

Correct. I'll be reading the second question, and it's about the services division. At what level of sales do you expect the division to present positive margins?

Also, very good question. Thank you for your question, Carlos. So I would say that most of the losses that we have in services or services I would say all of them, is they're due to developing both capabilities and to growing the business at this rate. If it was not for the growth rate that we're having, if we were to suspend growth initiatives, businesses would already be cash flow positive. We expect that... our goal is to sustain high growth rates. And so we would expect that we would have break-even services at a higher sales level so that the base is large enough and the margin on the base is large enough to compensate for the expenses for the growth. Mario, I don't know if you can share any detail in terms of either by when or by what size of revenue we would expect this to happen.

Sure. Thanks, Charlie, and Carlos, thanks for joining us this morning. Just complementing what Charlie said is RIEVO is very near to be EBITDA positive. We expect that for for the end of this year, RIEVO and water treatment plans to be EBITDA positives. The main EBITDA, to put it so drugger, it's VEBIA, which most of the expenses are due to the speed of growth. Presented this yesterday, we were analyzing with the board. How does the P&L look like if we just stop VEBIA growing, and the result is as of today, or for the second quarter of this year, the EBITDA margin for VEBIA will be 25%. So that gives you kind of a sense of first, water treatment, which is RSA and RIEGO will be by year end EBITDA positive. And second, VEBIA is the one that it's because of the growth having a negative EBITDA, which together presents a negative EBITDA for the services segment. Having said that, we expect to have BEVIA in 2026 EBITDA positive. So putting all the pieces together, we expect that by 2026 to have the services business units EBITDA positive.

Thank you. Let's proceed with the next question. So it's, hey, Charlie and Mario, this is Felipe from BTG. And he has two questions. I'm going to read the first one. What's the strategy moving forward for Argentina? Perhaps this isn't the best timing given the depressed moment the market is going through. But has a potential divestment of the Argentine business been on the table?

Thank you very much for your question, Felipe. Thanks for joining. So I think we have been very disciplined in analyzing each of the businesses individually. We have done this very well, in my opinion, since 2009. We have had divestments in the company. We divested from a manufacturing business in the U.S. We divested from a manufacturing business in Brazil. And so these conversations do take place in Roto-Plexus. Like you mentioned, it is not the best moment to consider this very actively because of the depressed situation of Argentina, but it wouldn't be specific to Argentina. We would consistently consider the investment opportunities in Roto-Plus. Argentina, I think, has tremendous uncertainty, and we would really like to see what happens in the country in the next one or two quarters where I think we will have much more clarity in what's going to happen in that market. I have traveled to Argentina recently. I have been very close to the country. And I have seen a very different possibility for Argentina. And I would be keen to see whether this really materializes in a different way where a very long term trend for Argentina might change. And obviously then consider more seriously what is the best path forward for Roto Plus in terms of our participation in Argentina. Mario, anything else that you care to share?

Sure. Well, thanks. First, thank you for joining us this morning, Felipe. As you mentioned, and it's like a This is not the best moment to make any calls. I think we need to remember that Argentina goes through these big cycles every two decades before there were smaller cycles, which is what we were expecting. So I think the long-term strategy for Argentina hasn't changed. We remember for the last four years, Argentina has been performing very well. So not because this first half was very bad. It's something that we need to rush and make a decision. And also, as Charlie mentioned, we're always analyzing where to invest and also where to divest. As we have shown in the past when we sold our business in Brazil, when we sold part of our business in the U.S. So we are actively looking at business performance and making decisions accordingly.

Perfect. So the second question, how has the programmatic M&A pipeline come along? When can we expect more transactions for this program?

Would you like to? Sure.

Well, the programmatic M&A, as explained a couple of meetings ago, it's the same. We are focusing in Mexico with a light touch in the U.S. and Brazil, mainly the water treatment. now on the Bevia business. As you know before, the Riego business was also included, but we're done with it. So that's where we're standing. We are very active on looking at different alternatives, where to allocate those investments to accelerate the growth of our current portfolios.

Perfect. So let's move forward with the next question, and it's from Regina Carrillo from GBM. Good morning, Charlie and Mario. She also has two questions. I want to read them separately because there are about two different topics. I'll read the first one. Regarding the updating guidance, can you give us more color on what trends to expect by region for the second half of the year?

Mario, would you like to? comment first? Sure.

Uh, let's, let's go, uh, North to, to sell. Uh, I think it's the best way to, to explain what, what are we looking? Uh, in the, in the second half, uh, of, of the year, we, we expect the, uh, stronger performance from the U.S., uh, better, uh, stronger sales, and, uh, better EBITDA margins, uh, Second, in Mexico and Central America, we expect a very similar performance in revenue, but more efficiency in SG&A. So we're expecting to reduce expenses for the second half in Mexico and Central America, mainly driven by a slowdown on the IT initiatives because most of the deployments were done in the first half. Peru we believe it's going to be pretty much the same as in the first half. It's more tied to the microeconomic environment where, as you can see from different reports, Peru economic perspective doesn't seem to change a lot. Brazil, it's a small portion of the business, good momentum that is not going to move the needle in terms of financial performance. And finally, Argentina is a big question. It's a big question for everyone. You know, we, in the past couple of days, through our different board and committee meetings, and we have had big discussions around Argentina for the second half. As you know, we have some Argentinian board members. They mentioned that there are a lot of still unknown variables. They expect that the second half of the year will be much better than the first half. But again, you know, the year is still out there. We hope that the recovery will start happening in the second half. We've seen, and probably you also noticed some encouraging news regarding sequential economic growth in Argentina. So we were very focused on seeing what's going to happen in Argentina. So from all what we have said, I think the biggest market is around Argentina. The other markets will be pretty much stable and performing better than the first half. I don't know, Charlie, if you want to add something else around.

Just to reiterate that we will have strong focus on managing expenses. That's something that is under our control. In Argentina, what we will be focusing most on is having the agility to respond to whatever the outcome is. And so expenses, disciplining expenses and agility. Thank you very much for your question, Regina.

Thank you, guys. Regina's second question is about CAPEX. And then we also have two other questions from different people, Andrea and Raul, and they are also about CAPEX and the Iztapaluca plant. So I think we can wrap those three questions together. And the question is, what is the progress on the technological renewal of your Mexico plants? And how much CAPEX should we expect related to these in the next quarters? Also, Raul is asking about the CAPEX in the coming next two years, and Andrea about the Iztapaluca plant. Okay.

Thank you very much for your questions and for joining, Raul, Andrea, and again Regina. So one of the major investments we have been having has been modernizing our water tank manufacturing processes. And we have completed the vast majority of this project. I would say we're close to 90%. Ixtapaluca is a manufacturing plant to serve the central part of the country, particularly Mexico City being the biggest market. We have been serving this market through the first manufacturing plant Rotoplast ever had. This was close to Xochimilco. It used to be in a well-suited place to the manufacturing. The city grew so much in the last four decades that this manufacturing plant ended up being in the middle of a residential area. And so we have developed a new manufacturing plant in Iztapaluca, which is also very well located to serve the Mexican city market, the Mexican city market. And we have now started manufacturing in this facility since the second half of May. This was the last major manufacturing facility to be modernized in the water tank manufacturing process. And so this is why I say that we're very close to finishing the investments from this modernization project. So in the next couple of quarters, that CapEx will be coming down for the manufacturing of our products, and CapEx will be more focused on continuing to develop some digital capabilities that can be capitalized and waste water treatment plants or water treatment plants in general. Mario, any details you can provide in terms of CAPEX looking forward?

Just probably give you some color. I think what you're going to be seeing is a trend of a CAPEX reduction in the second half because we're almost done with all the Tinaco Plus initiative, which was a large CapEx initiative that took approximately three years to complete. So going forward, you will see more maintenance CapEx in the product side and some specific CapEx in water treatment as we invest in new plants. And Vavia, As you know, a year ago, we started to capitalize the equipment. So the capex you will be seeing is mostly growth in the services part, water treatment plants and baby, and maintenance capex in the product side.

Thank you, guys. So we have another question from Rodrigo Salazar, AM Advisors. Actually, he has three questions. I'll start with the first one. Could you expand on the sales and expenses in the services segment and an approximate of how much each business is contributing and also explain how much of the growth we saw was inorganic?

Mario, would you care to share what we can provide?

Good morning, Rodrigo, and thanks for joining us this morning. Well, I think the best way to see the business is, first, how the three businesses in the services segment contribute in revenue. Give or take, RSA and Ambevia are about 35%, 37% of revenue. The remainder comes from Riego. 35% each. 35% Revia, 35% RSA, and the remaining, which is a little bit below 40%, comes from Rio. And then in terms of the growth, from the 63% you're seeing in the growth, 45 points comes from organic growth, 18 comes from inorganic growth. So the two acquisitions that we did in the first half of the year, which is the aqua play water treatment plant and the business, those two account for about 25% of the total growth. Again, 63% is the growth, 45% organic, 18% inorganic. And then in terms of expenses, The biggest expense driver in the services segment is Bevia, and it's driven by growth. I was mentioning early on when Carlos from Apalachia asked us when to break even. Bevia, as you know, we do a lot of commercial and marketing efforts to acquire new customers, and that is where the expenses growth is coming. If we were to stop that and stop growth, then everything will be a bit of a positive. But I think right now the market is so attractive on the three units for RotoPlus that we have a keen focus on growth initiatives. I don't know, Charlie, if you want to complement. Thank you, Mario.

Okay, so we can move forward to the second question. Can you provide insights into your working capital management for the upcoming quarters? Are there expected recoveries or challenges? Additionally, we observed higher interest payments this quarter. Could you elaborate on the reasons behind this increase?

Would you like to start, Mario?

Yeah, let's start with the interest payment part. The only additional interest that we paid is from the Reboulder credit fund. the short term that we mentioned in the press release and early on in the – we were presenting the results. That's the only additional interest. The rest is a fixed rate from the bond, which is a fixed rate of 8.65%. The revolver credit is the one that we're – it's paying additional interest. But that's it. And probably, Mariana, we can provide Rodrigo with just a breakdown of on the interest payments from the revolver facility, which are small. The main part comes with a fix, which is what we've been doing in the past few years. In terms of working capital management, and again, it's all tied to what to expect with Argentinians. Because what happened in the first half or the second quarter is that in one side you have Mexico and Central America performing very well. You have the products division growing very fast. You have the services division growing very fast. So those are working capital eaters or they need for working capital. In the other hand, your second largest business, which is Argentina, because of the recession, working capital has been slower. So inventories have built up. It's not that we have to keep buying more stuff. It's just that it takes time to reduce inventories. So when you put all that together, you see a double effect on working capital increase. As mentioned earlier on, we believe performance in Mexico and Central America will keep at the same level. And again, if Argentina improves, then the working capital in Argentina, which is the main driver, will improve, and overall the company working capital will be better off. If Argentina deteriorates further or does not improve, then you will be seeing pretty much the same level of working capital white folk.

Perfect. And the last question. Could you expand in the margins in Argentina? Was there something special in the quarter or with this current situation and the current level of sales, can we expect margins to remain this low?

I think margins will reflect on will vary directly depending on the changes of volume in sales. And this is where we have mentioned that there will be high uncertainty going forward, Rodrigo. I think we will have more clarity for the next quarter. But for now, we do expect margins to be low as we are considering is still a very challenging economic growth situation in Argentina. We do see some growth starting to happen, but it is still unclear how much that growth will be. Now, in terms of margins, also, as mentioned, we will be focusing very much on controlling expenses, and I think we can improve margins slightly through our practice in Argentina. through our control of expenses.

I don't know, Matt, if there's anything else you'd like to... I think just to round up, Charles, is margin expansion or contraction in Argentina is all tied to revenue sales. We are making great efforts to keep what we control under check, which is controlling expenses. We're very keen on what to do and how we do it. And as we mentioned early on, it's a temporary thing. We don't need to rush on making decisions. We keep a focus on maintaining or gaining market shares, keeping the team motivated, and helping them navigate this complex situation that the whole country is facing. Actually, as you know, we have regional board meetings. and we have a specific board advisory for Argentina. And they were telling us that, you know, it is really remarkable that given the situation, we are posting positive EBITDA. So I think it's not the best news for investors, obviously, but the team and local team in Argentina and the team in corporate are making tremendous efforts to keep this situation the best we can.

Thank you, guys. So moving on to the next question, Andrea Montiel from Miranda Partners. And also we have a question from Martin that is related to services, both asking about what's coming next. So I want to read Andrea's question. How do you anticipate sustaining this growth trajectory in services sales given the strong performance of Bevia, RSA, and Aquantia Brasil?

Hello, Andrea. Thank you for the question, and thank you for the question as well, Martin. So, yes, we've been having very strong growth in services. The growth happens as a consequence of two things. Three things. The first, obviously, is that there's a need for these solutions. What we're offering in services is quite novel, and it's a way where customers resolve their water issues with a better experience and with a better result. So I think that the design of these solutions, of these services, has been very well done where customers are looking for these solutions. But to serve a large scale of customers with these solutions, which happen to be decentralized solutions, we need to develop capabilities that have taken time. As we have been developing capabilities, which is the second one, then our revenues have grown. And so as we continue to deliver on the capabilities we've been building, Revenants will continue to grow because the opportunity, the size of the opportunity in these businesses is very large. And lastly, it's about customers learning about these services that we provide. Rotoplast has a very well-known brand, not necessarily for the services. It's mainly products, but we do leverage that brand to communicate that we offer these novel solutions through services. through these new services. And so as we continue to make progress in customers learning about this new approach that Rota Plus offers, then revenues will continue to grow. So we do see sustainability in the growth because of the size of the opportunity and because of the attractiveness of these services. And lastly, because of the development of our capabilities to systemically serve these customers through these capabilities, even in much larger scales. And when I mean larger scales, it means being repeated in more times, not bigger solutions, but more customers. Mario, anything else?

No, I think you just probably add up that over the past years we've been investing through expenses on different initiatives to habilitate this speed of growth that the company set up is in good shape. Technology, as we've been pointing out in the past calls, we have put together all that. so we can sustain that speed of growth going forward. So let's say that we have put the railroads for three promising businesses that should eventually move the needle going forward.

And just very quickly, we have only five minutes left and a couple of questions on the left bottom. You know, in these services, we had to develop capabilities that were very new for Rotoplast because it was such a different business from what we were used to. So a lot of investment went into us learning how to participate in the solutions through this service approach. And so I think that we have learned very much and we're very benefiting from those learnings now today in a way that delivers very high growth. But thank you again for your question.

We have another question. It's from Miguel Medina. How much of the plant modernization process has already been captured in the P&L? Should we expect more gross margin gains from efficiencies in product division? Thank you.

So in terms of reduction, of course, because of the modernization, I would say that most has already been captured. As we mentioned, most of the transformation has already been executed. So I don't mind if there's a particular number.

Well, thanks, Miguel, for joining this call. I think that you're going to be seeing 2025, the full effect, all these new manufacturing and technological shift that the company started two years ago. For 2024, what we expect is that 60% of the Tinacos will be done with a new technology, 40% with the previous technology. So having said that, I think you will still see some improving gross margin in the coming months to go.

Thank you. And the last question is from Andrea Montiel. Can you elaborate on the specific projects funded by CapEx investments and their expected impact on the future growth?

So, Maybe you can provide the precise data, Mario, but we have invested a few hundred million pesos in strategic CAPEX. All of our initiatives, every time we execute CAPEX, they come through a formal initiative that we take through the process of flow where we have a format where we look to have clarity and validation that gives us unexpected IRR. Unexpected IRR for strategic CapEx is over 25%, I would say. Maybe you can be a little bit more precise, Mario.

It's probably just connecting with what you said. If you see CapEx, and let's put it this way, organic and inorganic. Just put everything there. The company is being focused on, first, to modernize all the technology to manufacture a better water tank. That's been an important deployment of CalPIX. The second part has been accelerating water treatment plants by building new assets and acquiring new assets, such as the Aqua Pue water treatment plant in Puebla. The third one has been to put add-ons to Riego to make it a more robust business and take advantage of the opportunity we are seeing on water management in the ag business in Mexico. And the fourth one is Bevia. Bevia, with the speed of growth, and the way we have changed the accounting of the equipment, those are the four components that probably takes 95% of the CapEx. The other 5% is mostly maintenance CapEx just to keep up our manufacturing plants. But those four pillars are the ones that the CapEx has been deployed around. Connecting with the previous question, what you're going to be seeing forward is the technology upgrade on the water tanks, that is going to start slowing down. And we're going to be left off with two, which is water treatment plants on one side and baby on the other side, plus maintenance gap days, which is you have to do it every single year.

So this concludes our Q&A session for today. Have a great day, and we look forward to our next meeting. Something would you like to add, Mario or Charlie?

No, just thank everyone for your participation and your time.

Well, thank you for joining us this morning. And if you have any further requests, please reach out to me or Charlie or the team. Happy to answer back to you.

Bye.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.